The Penultimate

Granddad didn’t make it for the weekend. He lost all responses to the outside world on Wednesday. Auntie Lai Mooi called in the morning to say the doctors said there was nothing more they could do and we should be prepared for the worst- please have your relatives home as soon as possible.

I couldn’t get Lee Hui so I called Chun. His response was much swifter than I expected- he called Lee Hui, who just reached her office, and hurried her home. He was back in Klang in a half-hour and told his boss he would not come back to work until the next Wednesday. Strange that he only brought one change of clothing.

I called Yeng Hou, who also reached Auntie Lai Keen's house in a 1/2 hour.

I called Auntie Lai Keen at the kindergarten- I feared to call her the most, but Auntie Lai Mooi took the easier task of calling Uncle You Ming and my dad.

I called Miin Lyn, Auntie Lai Keen's 17 year old daughter who just finished her SPM, and who was still sleeping. I asked her to get Jack home from school.

We all got to the hospital before 2 pm. All of us from the Klang Valley, and dad from Taiping. It was the first time I saw grandma cry, and cried like a little girl. She really did.

“Fong, we’ve been together for so many years. You want to leave me alone now?”

At her insistence we had granddad discharged. The nurses taught Lee Hui and I how to feed granddad through the tubes. The oxygen tank and mask, the tubes and the medication all came back with us.

Lee Hui and I fed his night meal and medicines at 10pm. We turned his position at 2 am. And fed him again at 6am. Auntie Lai Keen and Auntie Lai Mooi were all nerves. They jumped at every little movement. The men were as usual, incapable of much. Granddad’s breathing was getting more difficult despite the oxygen mask, and his fever came back. Lee Hui and I wiped him with cold water and towels.

At 10 am, we prepared his meal again- Ensure milk powder. I drew the syringe at the end of his feeding tube and instead of just air; it was undigested milk and blood.

The second generation was in tears. I called the doctor and he told us what to do, and to come into the hospital for medication to heal granddad’s tummy.

Lee Hui and I went to the hospital after draining the liquid from his stomach. Our cousin Yeng Hou kept watch.

Yeng Hou also grew up with granddad and grandma. He could not accept what happened to granddad. I also watched this 23-year old six footer crunch up and weep openly. His whole body rocked and he said while he wept. “I don’t want to see granddad suffer and die. I don’t want to see him this way! I don’t want him to go at all!”

Yeng Hou and Jack are the family clowns. Yeng Hou would always say funny things in front of granddad and make fun of him. Granddad’s only expression would be to smile while he continued his exercise of swinging his hands and walking back and forth the house.

We got the medication. The doctor asked if we would like to arrange for a nurse to visit our home everyday. Of course! While making arrangements for that, Auntie Lai Mooi called- could we bring a nurse immediately? Granddad’s breathing was getting very thin and his body was turning cold.

As we walked with a nurse to the parking lot, granddad breathed his last.